We hope you’ve enjoyed our Montgomery Course blog series. Our final class, Reporting and Communications, will take a look at a common concern, greenwashing.

Defined: Green-wash (green’wash’, -wôsh’) – verb: the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.

There are various indices and even games to help you identify greenwashing, but none better than professional Jacquie Ottman of J.Ottman Consulting (a green marketing firm based in NYC) to clarify.

In her interview with Toronto Sustainability, Ottman explains that she thinks greenwashing is less prevalent than it seems, explaining that some organizations’ standards are simply too high. She also explains how to avoid over-stating the greenness of a product, but carefully choosing product language.